Creative Europe agreement – time for a renewed ambition for music

14 December 2020 - Press release

IMPALA welcomes today's agreement on the next Creative Europe programme, the EU's only programme dedicated to culture.

With a budget of €2.2bn, the 7-year programme starting in 2021 will be the biggest yet. For the first time ever, specific sectoral actions for music will be introduced, on top of the traditional horizontal support for the cultural and creative sector.

IMPALA's Executive Chair Helen Smith, said: "The combination of an increased budget and a new focus on music opens up many opportunities in terms of funding for music projects. Building on all the work done with Music Moves Europe, which was designed to lay the ground for larger-scale support for the sector under Creative Europe, the EU should be able to show renewed ambition for music and hit the ground running ".

Recent EU studies show that while the European music sector is rich and diverse, it also faces many challenges: it is highly concentrated, EU repertoire does not travel well, funding schemes at national and European level fall short of the sector's needs, data is scarce, the list is long...

Helen Smith concluded: "We now look forward to hearing what the European Commission has in stock for the music sector. At a time when the music sector is severely impacted by the Covid crisis, but also by recent EU case-law which will have disastrous implications in terms of revenue and basic copyright principles unless addressed, the time is right for the EU to take a strategic and bold approach to its dynamic music sector".